Telly Hankton, the man New Orleans police have described as the city's most dangerous criminal, was sentenced to life at Angola last week for the May 2008 murder of Darnell Stewart. But before New Orleanians could breathe a sigh of relief at Hankton's permanent removal from our midst, the brother of Hankton's main accuser was hit by a barrage of bullets.

Michael DeMocker / The Times-PicayuneThe location in the 3400 block of South Claiborne Avenue where Darnell Stewart. was shot by Telly Hankton after a high-speed chase down South Claiborne Avenue on May 13, 2008. Saturday night 61-year-old Curtis Matthews, a brother to an eyewitness against Hankton, was killed in the same block.

Did Hankton somehow manage to order a hit from a jail cell? Or did one or more of his henchmen freelance a murder on his behalf? If either is true, residents are right to be frightened. And if it's the case that Curtis Matthews' murder had nothing to do with Telly Hankton and his conviction, there's reason to be worried by that. It isn't everyday that members of the AARP set are shot down in the streets, and it would be an alarming development if there were a trend in that direction.

But there's good reason to believe Curtis Matthews was a casualty in this city's effort to put Hankton away. Matthews' brother John, the state's main eyewitness against Hankton, was himself shot 17 times at his eastern New Orleans home last year. Authorities say that attack aimed to prevent the witness' testimony.

John Matthews testified anyway. Twice: first in a July trial that ended with a hung jury and again in a September retrial that ended with jurors voting 10-2 to convict Hankton of second-degree murder. During that second trial, he told jurors that he heard Stewart get shot repeatedly in the 3400 block of South Claiborne and that he was "95 to 97 percent" sure that Hankton was the man he saw walking away from the murder scene via Louisiana Avenue.

He was praised in this column for not letting the fear of death keep him off the witness stand, for not letting himself be intimidated into silence despite the serious injuries he suffered during last year's attack at his house. I likened his righteous defiance to that of civil rights demonstrators who had every reason to fear that death would be their reward but straightened their spines and demanded justice anyway.

"Confrontation is not bad," the recently departed Fred Shuttlesworth said. The Baptist pastor who was bombed and beaten repeatedly for civil rights activism in Birmingham, Ala., said, "Goodness is supposed to confront evil."

If there was a flaw in that column praising John Matthews' courage, it was the assumption that with Hankton's conviction the battle was over, that good had clearly triumphed and that we wouldn't be confronted with Hankton's evil anymore. Then Matthews' brother was killed, killed in the same block where Stewart was killed more than three years ago.

Another man testified against Hankton, too. This newspaper and other media outlets agreed not to report his name, but he trembled all the same. He explained to the prosecutor who questioned him on the witness stand, "I don't want to be here."

It is imperative that our Police Department and district attorney's office protect that man. John Matthews has left the city. It may be necessary for the unnamed witness to temporarily relocate, too. That also applies to any witnesses the state has lined up against Hankton for the 2009 murder of Jessie "TuTu" Reed. That trial is scheduled for March. It's hard to imagine anybody being more frightened by this weekend's murder of Curtis Matthews than those who may have cooperated with the authorities following the Jessie Reed case.

And yet it's important that that trial take place. There's no way to guarantee that Hankton's conviction in the Stewart case won't be overturned on appeal, and if he's as dangerous as police say he is, it's important that he stand trial for the murder of Reed. With all the related violence that's accompanied his prosecution, there can be no pretending that pursuing cases against Hankton will be easy -- or that witnesses will be eager to talk.

But what's the alternative? Letting ourselves be terrorized? Giving the spillers of blood free rein? Our confrontations against evil will likely be neverending. The only way it won't? If we wave the white flag and declare defeat.